The Lost Art of Negative Retouching

120 or bigger format B&W negatives used to be retouched using fine sharp pencils, to remove any facial blemishes like pimples, wrinkles, scars etc & then given for printing. Those areas used to get printed in slight white color, which again needed retouching  with fine brushes, blades to scrape some black & gray areas to blend with the skin tone & give a final make up look & flatter the subject. Seen in the image is my father, who was a master of retouching & could do dozens of negatives by smoking a couple of cigarettes & some Irani Chai.

Sometimes there used to be extreme cases where pimples had to be removed on a young girl's face for submitting for matrimonial purposes. And then there were people who simply wanted to look younger & required their wrinkles be removed. All done at no extra charge...